Pilots: CBS Puts Balfour on the Beat

Start the Milo DeathWatch on "24," because Eric Balfour has signed on for a lead role in the CBS pilot "Protect and Serve."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Balfour will play an intense and emotional officer in the drama, which focuses on street cops in suburban Los Angeles.

Balfour is currently in the midst of a return engagement as Milo Pressman on FOX's "24." After appearing on the Emmy-winning FOX drama's first season, he left to do a long string of short-lived shows ranging from The WB's "Fearless," which never aired, to barely-aired blips like NBC's "Hawaii" and "Conviction" and UPN's "Sex, Love & Secrets."

Plenty of actors have, of course, left "24" to do other shows without being killed off, so Balfour's addition to the "Protect and Serve" need not be seen as a sign of his character's demise, but we're watching anyway.

CBS has also cast Grant Show and Jack Davenport as two of the leads in its 1970s suburban partner-swapping drama "Swingtown." Davenport will play a businessman happily married to his high school sweetheart, with Show as an airplane pilot in an open marriage.

Davenport was one of the starts of the original British "Coupling" and has been featured in the first two "Pirates of the Caribbean" films.

Show's most recent regular series gig was FOX's "Point Pleasant," but he'll always be best know as Jake from "Melrose Place."